WinOS/2 and WINE on Linux.
Category None
Now I'm now Linux expert, and I'm certainly no WINE expert, but those that have known me for much longer than they would care to remember, will know that I was at one point considered a bit of an OS/2 expert (I think I've just about lived it down). I've seen a lot discussion in forums recently with people requesting vendors to make their products run under WINE, they believe this will help the move to Linux on desktops.
If history is anything to go by I think this is not a good idea. In the hey day of OS/2 (if there ever was one), when OS/2 had WIN OS/2, and could run multiple Windows emulation sessions, getting around many of the memory limitations of native Windows, people were often given products that would run in WIN OS/2, the truth be told, although this helped IBM in some presentations, it didn't help them gain customers and the reasons were simple, vendors would offer limited support, the end user experience was not as seamless as anyone would like, and there were way to many configuration options available to really screw things up. What this approach did do those, was pretty much stall or cease native OS/2 clients, which brought around the whole chicken and egg situation, which makes an OS a success, the apps or the platform?
So if the Linux fans want to be demanding something, don't make mistake of accepting WINE solutions, demand native apps, oh and whilst you're at it, pick a single frigging desktop and stick to it, every week another distribution or front end seems to come out, can anyone say UNIX?
Now I'm now Linux expert, and I'm certainly no WINE expert, but those that have known me for much longer than they would care to remember, will know that I was at one point considered a bit of an OS/2 expert (I think I've just about lived it down). I've seen a lot discussion in forums recently with people requesting vendors to make their products run under WINE, they believe this will help the move to Linux on desktops.
If history is anything to go by I think this is not a good idea. In the hey day of OS/2 (if there ever was one), when OS/2 had WIN OS/2, and could run multiple Windows emulation sessions, getting around many of the memory limitations of native Windows, people were often given products that would run in WIN OS/2, the truth be told, although this helped IBM in some presentations, it didn't help them gain customers and the reasons were simple, vendors would offer limited support, the end user experience was not as seamless as anyone would like, and there were way to many configuration options available to really screw things up. What this approach did do those, was pretty much stall or cease native OS/2 clients, which brought around the whole chicken and egg situation, which makes an OS a success, the apps or the platform?
So if the Linux fans want to be demanding something, don't make mistake of accepting WINE solutions, demand native apps, oh and whilst you're at it, pick a single frigging desktop and stick to it, every week another distribution or front end seems to come out, can anyone say UNIX?
| Permalink | 
Comments
Posted by Ben Langhinrichs At 10:07:42 AM On 02/21/2004 | - Website - |
Posted by Bruce Elgort At 01:01:49 PM On 02/21/2004 | - Website - |
Posted by Ben Langhinrichs At 05:38:32 PM On 02/21/2004 | - Website - |